Hokitika and around travel guide

Hokitika, or ‘Hoki’ as it is known, offers the same warm welcome and has the proud, healthy heartbeat felt all along the west coast. An important port until 1954, the town is also steeped in gold mining history; more of the precious metal passed through Hoki in the 1860s than any other town on the coast. Between 1865 and 1867, over 37,000 hopefuls arrived from Australia, America and Britain, requiring a staggering 84 hotels to put them all up in. In 1865, pioneer surveyor Julius von Haast described Hokitika as “a scene of almost indescribable bustle and activity”. In those heady days it seemed only the river itself could hold the town back. At one point during the gold rush there was at least one grounding every 10 weeks – and 21 in 1865 alone. Like everywhere else the gold ran out and old ‘Hoki’ slipped into decline. But today gold has been replaced by that other precious resource – tourism. It is now the craft capital of the west coast and summer sees crowds of visitors arrive by the bus load, to watch glass-blowing and greenstone carving and to browse in its numerous galleries.

South from Hokitika the influence of humanity decreases dramatically and the aesthetics begin to reflect the sheer dominance of nature. Mountain ranges climb steadily on the eastern horizon, ascending in ever-increasing beauty towards the heady peaks of the Westland National Park and to Mount Cook itself. Small villages like Ross and Hari Hari cling precariously to a history of gold mining and demonstrate in size alone how much nature rules these parts, and hopefully always will. This is where the ‘real’ west coast begins.